Released June 13, 1995 Recorded 1994 Label Cooltempo | Format CD single, cassette Genre R&B, Soul | |
Writer(s) D'Angelo, Ali Shaheed Muhammad | ||
"Brown Sugar" is a song by American recording artist D'Angelo, taken from his debut album, of the same name. The song was released as the album's lead single in 1995, through the Cooltempo label. The song was written and produced by D'Angelo and frequent collaborator Ali Shaheed Muhammad.
Contents
Composition
Opened by falsetto ad-libs, an organ refrain and pulsating bass lines, the title track "Brown Sugar" features a dark, thick texture and a gutbucket-jazz style and rhythm. The instrumentation throughout the song, highlighted by Jimmy Smith-style organ work, atmospheric percussion and snapping snare drums, has been described by music writers as "organic". The song's sound is also similar to the work of funk, soul and jazz musician Roy Ayers, while D'Angelo's soulful tenor-delivery throughout the song's verses is stylistically similar the flow of most emcees at the time.
Misinterpreted as a traditional love song about a femme fatale by most R&B audiences, "Brown Sugar" is an ode to marijuana use through its use of the personification of a brown-skinned woman. This thematic substitution is a conventional lyrical technique in hip hop. Music journalist Peter Shapiro wrote of the song's lyrical content, stating "D'Angelo was extolling the pleasures of pot-fuelled solipsism ('Always down for a ménage à trois/But I think I'ma hit it solo/Hope my niggaz don't mind') and intimating that love, or at least love of the herb, leads to insanity ('Brown sugar babe/I gets high off you love/Don't know how to behave')." Writer and academic Todd Boyd compared the song, along with Dr. Dre's The Chronic (1992) and Styles P's "Good Times" (2002), to Rick James's "Mary Jane" (1978), stating that the song "celebrated his love for gettin' blazed and spawned ... a truly large following."
Credits
All vocals by D'Angelo